Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will maintain its plans to begin trial production on 18-inch wafers in 2012 despite a conservative outlook prevailing across most semiconductor makers, according to industry sources.

TSMC is cooperating closely with equipment and material suppliers to push the advance to 18-inch wafer production and believes the time will be ripe to begin trial production in 2010, said sources familiar with TSMC roadmap.
While currently focusing on ramping yield rates on its 40nm process, TSMC will begin 28nm production in first-quarter 2010, according to previous reports.